Blogging Growth: An Inside Look at My Blogging Process

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Progress Update: This is a progress update on my blogging from where I originally began.

If anyone ever told you that blogging was easy then they obviously never blogged before. Bloggers these days will tell you that a lot goes into it besides picking a topic and writing about it.

It takes hard work and dedication like so many other things out there. And at times it can be extremely overwhelming, especially if you’re brand new. But once you get your process going, there’s no stopping you.

I still consider myself a new blogger but within this past year, I’ve learned a lot from others about what type of blogger I want to be.

Do you have what it takes to be a Blogger

In January of 2020, I began this blog as a way to share my personal stories with depression as well as topics that no one really talked about. I had no real goals for what I wanted my blog to be. I couldn’t describe what my blog was about and now looking back at old posts, my blog was all over the place.

By May, I was starting to burn out. My depression was returning due to the pandemic and quarantine. Which is why in June, I stopped writing and shut my site down. After taking a week or so off, I began to miss my blog. And that’s when I buckled down and began this continuous journey of learning everything I could about how to be a blogger.

If I was going to be a blogger, I was going to do it the blogger way.

My blog became my new niche and brand

If I was going to do this then I wanted to do it right. And that meant doing what was right for my blog. It needed a true identity and purpose. So rather than write about anything, I worked on figuring out a niche for myself. And everything I read showed me how to do so.

Of course, I had no clue how much information was out there. I can’t lie, it was extremely overwhelming, and I had to google a lot just to understand what a niche was, among other things. Still, I soldiered on.

If you don’t know what a niche is, it’s a specific topic that you write about for a blog.

I knew I wanted to continue to write about mental health, so I picked that as my niche with self-care being my sub-niche. And now I can explain to others what my blog is about. “The Silent Torch is a blog about tips, guides, and personal stories based around spreading mental health awareness and self-care in a positive fashion.”

For new bloggers out there, I wouldn’t sweat picking a niche right away. Start off by writing about what you enjoy. As you write about it, you’ll begin to see what you gravitate towards and it will define what your niche is for your blog.

But if you’re determined to start off with a niche right away, the formula I used was actually from a freelance writing course that I took over the summer.

I simply created a list that included the following:

What are you passionate about – What do you have experience in

And from there I was able to narrow down what my blog was going to center around.

Let the hard work of blogging begin

Once I figured out what my niche was, I wanted to understand my blog and where I wanted it to go. By reading so many different things about blogging, I was able to get a picture of what the day in the life of a blogger looked like.

And I wanted exactly that. As we know there are thousands of bloggers out there and everyone has their own process of how they run their blog. For the most part, the basics are the same which looks like this:

• Research & writing
• Scheduling & posting
• Advertising on social media

Now while those three bullets look simple, it is a long process. I’m glad that I read the articles that I did because they showed me how to become a better blogger for my blog. My process for running my blog has become more structured. And I’m not as overwhelmed.

So, here’s a look at my process and what I do as the blogger of The Silent Torch.

Monthly blog goals

What I’m starting to learn as a blogger is that everything is about planning and scheduling. If you’re a single blogger like myself then everything is done by your hands. Which means that having goals and a schedule is a big benefit.

Each month, my blog goal consists of three blog posts (once every week). For me, this works best because I work a physical 9 to 5. My days off allow me to work on my blog post effectively for the time being. I leave the final week in each month as a break from writing. This is my time to focus on next month’s goals as well as promoting the month’s blog posts over social media.

Your goals for posting may differ and may be more or less. Whatever your goal is for each month, putting out consistent blog post helps to keep you relevant. And it also keeps you growing. This goal is something you should expect to occur each month until you’re ready to or need to change it.

Aside from figuring out how many times you’re going to post, there are other goals you may want to set as a blogger. Now, this is something I’m still learning to master.

• What topics you want to cover (themed, special awareness, off-topic, etc.)
• How much traffic or how many followers (improving your Google Analytics, Jetpack, or other)
• Scheduling your content
• Image research and gathering (saves time if you have a folder of images ready to go)
• Social media posts and following (more on this later)
• Guest post or Collaborations

These are just a few goals that I tend to focus on and some things that I had no idea about the first time I started blogging.

Researching, outlining, and scheduling blog posts

Some of the things that I learned and now benefit from are putting researching and outlining into my routine of blogging. I have a million different things that run through my head on a daily basis. So this is something well needed.

I make these two the first things I do before each blog post I write. The outline makes it so much easier because it pinpoints everything I want to cover within that post. And it’s not finalized so there’s always room for changes.

Once my posts are ready to go, there are two websites that I use on a weekly basis.

• Headline Studio – helps me form titles for my blog posts
• Title Case – helps to format title and header

I find these to be a lifesaver for me. Headline Studio does cost money but they do have a set amount that you can use for free to help develop titles.

After my posts are ready, it’s time for scheduling. I find that scheduling at the beginning of the week is better because it allows me to promote the posts on social media over multiple days. A look at your analytics can help assist you in figuring out what your best days to post are.

Social media platforms

While it’s great to write these amazing posts, you need to put them out there for others to read. I’ve learned that my social media platforms are becoming my best friend. As a starting blogger, you may find it difficult to keep up with all the different platforms out there. And you may be like I was, trying to post on as many as possible.

DON’T. Instead, start off by posting about your blog on 1-2 social media platforms. See what drives traffic to your site. Once you’ve begun to master using that platform, plug in another. I started out with Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram.

And I found myself unable to keep up with the demand for all of them. So I narrowed it down to just my Twitter and Instagram and have noticed that most of my traffic has come from these two. Figure out what works for you and don’t worry if you can’t manage them all.

Social media management for your posts

Speaking of managing, as a single blogger, something I found to be a great asset to help me manage my post is a social media management app. There are some great ones out there such as Sprout, Buffer, Loomly, Tailwind (for Pinterest), and more.

I like to use Later. A bit on the pricey side at $15 a month, I find it worth the money. Later allows you to schedule posts to all your social media platforms (except for Pinterest). I’m able to create my monthly graphics using Canva, set up what I want to post throughout the month, and schedule them on the day and time I want.

What I like about it is that it notifies you when your post has uploaded to your selected social media app. It also alerts you to any issues as well.

It is probably the best thing for a blogger to have for all your planned posts. I usually set aside a day or two at the end of each month just to set up the monthly schedule for this. It saves time and you have one less thing to worry about.

Staying ahead of the blogging game

As you can see, there’s a lot that goes into blogging. And as I continue to grow as a blogger, there’s still a ton of things I need to learn. Staying ahead of your blogging game, not only builds a routine for your blogging experience but also gives you free time to work on other things.

If you’re anything like me then a schedule is just what you need. Take some time to build a couple of schedules for yourself. A monthly schedule for your blogging content and one for your social media content.

And soon you’ll be finding yourself trying to figure out what to do next.

Conclusion

I think the best advice I can give someone who is just starting out as a blogger is to have fun. Make sure you enjoy the content that you put out there and don’t worry about the numbers. If you’re consistent with your blog and find a process that works for you then you’ll grow.

So, what are some things in your blogging process? What was it like for you when you first started blogging? What are some tips you’d like to share? Feel free to share in the comments down below. Like and share for others to see. And don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter for updates, features, and more.

Until next time, this is Tammy saying keep strong, keep positive. And NOTHING’s impossible!!!